View Full Version : Firewire 400 or 800: Does it matter?


Brett OBourke
April 18th, 2006, 02:51 PM
I got a Cannon XL2 and will be transfering video to my ibook. I should buy a cable that connects the camera to the computer via my firewire 400 or 800 port? Or does it not matter? I would assume that 800 would be faster, but I'm new to this game. I have also have a hard drive that has both 400 and 800.

thanks,

BO'B

Dan Shallenberger
April 18th, 2006, 03:16 PM
I'm pretty sure the Canon IEEE 1394 output is FW400.

I'm not sure if it would even work on the FW 800 input, but if it did, you would't see a speed difference from using the FW400.

The hard drive, on the other hand, if it is a FW800 drive will benefit from plugging it into the FW 800 input.

Brett OBourke
April 18th, 2006, 04:05 PM
yea, I did some more looking around and it appears - like you said - it won't matter since the camera only *speaks* 400.

That said, 800 is backwards compatible, so I figure I'll grab a 4 pin to 9 pin (800) firewire cable anway. I think it'll git er done in the short term and maybe come in handy down the road.

BO'B